The United Nations described the Covid-19 pandemic as “the most challenging crisis we have faced since the Second World War”. Responding effectively clearly constituted a grand challenge (GC). However, compared to most GCs – typically longstanding and requiring multi-year collaborative efforts – the pandemic was an exigent GC, arising suddenly, developing rapidly and presenting a pressing global challenge. 

Research on GCs shows that private-sector firms can play critical roles in solving humanity’s greatest problems and promoting sustainable, inclusive development. Corporate social innovation (CSI) provides a new framework for inter-sectoral partnerships between private firms and public organisations to address GCs, producing profitable and sustainable change for both parties. However, most existing research focuses on solutions to longstanding and persistent GCs, such as poverty, inequality or climate change. In response, we sought to profile the role of CSI in tackling exigent GCs, such as the Covid-19 pandemic, with a focus on the service sector in developing countries.  

Selecting comparable initiatives across continents 

Tackling the pandemic involved a growing number and scope of inter-sectoral partnerships aiming to deliver urgent health and socio-economic responses. Governments, international agencies, global companies, academia and civil society quickly formed partnerships to enhance social capital, mobilise resources and develop infrastructure. But intersectoral partnership-based CSI entails particular challenges, as partners from different sectors may pursue their own interests at the expense of joint value creation.  

To understand the mechanisms behind successful CSI partnerships during the exigent challenge of the pandemic, we analysed four cases of CSI in three developing economies. We identified partnerships created during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, in which the private sector played a significant role. Drawing on an internet keyword search and expert recommendations from the UN partnership community, we selected four corporate cases with a wide geographical span and which differed from each other, but were sufficiently similar for comparability: 

• Hayel Saeed Anam (HSA) Group, a food-processing multi-national and part of the multi-stakeholder International Initiative on COVID-19 in Yemen (IICY) 
• The Tencent Foundation, a Chinese digital technology initiative which launched multiple partnerships to support pandemic responses, including through crowdsourcing platforms  
• Grupo Posadas, Mexico, a hotel chain which partnered with international organisations and government to provide free, safe accommodation for victims of domestic violence  
• Hotel Flamingo, Mexico, which joined with the International Organization for Migration (IOM), government, civil society, academia and private companies to give migrants temporary accommodation in northern Mexico. 

Between October 2020 and March 2021, we carried out hour-long video interviews with 16 senior representatives and partnership coordinators from companies and international organisations, and reviewed 63 partnership reports, news items and webpages. In-depth analysis of our findings revealed crucial factors and mechanisms that triggered the rapid formation of partnership-based CSI to address the pandemic, and enabled its effective operation.  

Key mechanisms for successful CSI partnerships 

These four CSI cases illustrate that private-sector firms are essential actors in the context of global efforts to tackle GCs. Our findings showed that firms in the service sector can address exigent GCs effectively via mechanisms which we summarise as the “3Es framework” – embeddedness, engagement and enhancement.   

• Embeddedness in inter-sectoral, trust-based partnerships  

Embedding CSI in cross-sectoral partnerships with international organisations was a fundamental mechanism for efficiently addressing the pandemic. In all four firms, CSI rests on public-private partnerships embedded in existing networks involving international organisations. Interviewees emphasised the high level of trust required in such partnerships. “We had previous experience working with a majority of the partners prior to the pandemic, both for business operations and corporate social responsibility purposes,” explained an IICY partner. “We warmly welcomed HSA’s initiative...” The findings also suggest that high collective commitment is vital to combine partners’ efforts to combat exigent GCs. The private firms we examined were very proactive, delivering much more than they had committed to and displaying no opportunistic behaviour, to achieve joint goals. Such efforts, in return, deepened the trust between CSI partners. In Yemen, for example, HSA worked with health authorities to identify needs, then sourced 400 ventilators and leveraged UN networks to enable their import by air from China.  

• Engagement via both cutting-edge and existing products and services 

We found that firms actively engaged in CSI during the pandemic both by deploying new technologies and adapting existing products and services in developing economies. In particular, digital technology plays a critical role in enabling firms' CSI capabilities to address GCs on an international scale or during crises. When traditional supply channels failed to meet the surge in demand for medical equipment caused by the pandemic, Tencent used leading-edge digital tools to enable crowdsourcing. The initiative leveraged social networks through technologies such as digital platforms, cloud computing and blockchain, making donations much easier than via traditional channels and enabling more organisations and individuals to contribute. Firms also repurposed existing goods and services to meet the needs of vulnerable populations. Grupo Posadas joined UN agencies, national and local governments and other Mexican hotels to provide free, safe accommodation and food to women and children who were victims of increased domestic violence during the pandemic.  

• Enhancement via managerial flexibility and inclusive decision making 

Our evidence suggests the essential role played by managerial agility and an inclusive, transparent governance structure that ensures equal participation, clear responsibility, and efficient and transparent communication. This is particularly the case during crises, when partnerships need to respond rapidly and deliver solutions. The disruptions caused by the pandemic made the joint delivery of new ideas more difficult than normal, requiring CSI partners to be very flexible to facilitate innovative service delivery. Interviewees reported the need to take decisions more quickly and adapt working procedures to enable the flexibility required for partnerships to succeed. “…Being flexible is very important for us to move the partnership structure as quickly as possible and adequately respond when we get a new idea or face obstacles such as political, bureaucratic or operational limitations, which we deal with every day,” explained a UN staff member from the IOM partnership with Hotel Flamingo, providing accommodation for migrants.  

Implications for future CSI success 

The 3Es model offers important managerial and policy implications for firms, governments and supranational bodies administering CSI partnerships to tackle exigent GCs in developing countries. Partnerships embedded in trust-based networks, engaging both new and existing products and services, and enabling enhanced flexibility allow members to mobilise heterogeneous actors, overcome resource and institutional constraints, and develop novel solutions. This suggests that organisations such as the UN and the World Bank should give greater support to cross-sectoral, multi-stakeholder partnerships involving the private sector, through both funding and non-funding policies – such as technological support and knowledge transfer. Such approaches can accelerate global efforts to tackle exigent GCs and achieve the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.   

CSI partnerships can also help firms achieve corporate social responsibility objectives, implement new ideas, and enhance competitiveness and stakeholder perceptions – which can ultimately improve their bottom lines. Engaging in partnership-based CSI during the pandemic enabled firms to demonstrate care for their stakeholders, collaborate with foreign partners and leverage digital technology for international impact.   

Although firms can find it harder to obtain stakeholder support for CSI to tackle long-standing GCs, the 3E model provides encouragement. The trust, flexibility and inclusiveness developed within successful partnerships for tackling exigent GCs also offer strong foundations for CSI partnerships to address humanity’s ongoing grand challenges, such as poverty or climate change.

Further information: 

Tackling exigent grand challenges through corporate social innovation: Evidence from the COVID-19 pandemic